Back in early November of last year Blizzard announced that it would be releasing it's sixth game in the Worlds of Warcraft series, titled Warlords of Draenor. What they also announced was that players who purchased this game would get a free level 90 character. This announcement was met with some mixed reactions. Some players saw it as a simple elegant answer to the problem of getting new players into the game (lets face it, buying six games and playing through almost a decade of content just so you can start is a little daunting ). Some players saw this as a slap in the face. How dare Blizzard just "give" away what they had to "earn". For the most part people got over it and excepted what was coming. However recently during a patch players became able to see but not use an upcoming Blizzard service in which players can purchase a level 90 character for $60. Not surprising it was at this point that the excrement struck the oscillating unit. Many players see this as the true start of "pay to win" believing that Blizzard has put players in a position of having to shell out large somes of real world money for the sake of keeping up with the Wrynn's so to speak. These people believe that this will take all the fun out of the game. That dungeons and raids will become flooded with players that have no idea how to play their class. That it's utterly unfair. However I'm not in this camp of thinking. I believe that Warcraft has become a little long in the tooth and honestly it's almost impossible to get new people into a game this far along. This boost gives new players a chance to jump into the game at level and play with their friends immediately. The buy a 90
option also helps to alleviate a drastic lack of tanks and healers in dungeons and raids. Playing these rolles is very difficult and people don't tend to want to learn how to perform them in random groups. When they have the option to boost right to 90 and learn how to do so with friends and guildies that will be more patient and understanding, people will be more prone to take up these spots. On the subject of players not knowing how to play their class, let's be honest; their are plenty of level 90s now that don't know how to play their class. This won't change a thing. As for the idea of it not being fair, I would question the validity of that statement. Offering players a way to get leveled up is nothing new, We have already been given the option to start at level 55 as a Death Knight, heirloom armor and weapons, guild leveling bonuses, Darkmoon Fair carousel, the anniversary experience and reputation bonus, Darkmoon Fair hat, The Daily monk quest, rested experience, scroll of resurrection and recruit a friend, not to mention that the experience needed to reach max level has been decreased repeatedly. All these methods have been used and abused to speed the leveling process. Any player that has used any of these things for the sake of leveling has no right to complain about people using the "easy button" because frankly they didn't take the long road either. Giving players the option to buy a level 90 character is only logical. Players already being given the option to get one with Warlords would only lead to players starting extra accounts, buying expansions to get the boost and then transferring the characters to their main account, this option just saves both players and blizzard a lot of time and energy on account transfers. If you take nothing else away from this I would suggest you take this. Buying a 90 is an option and not a requirement, if you don't want to use it you don't have to. Or summed up by a quoit that I have found to be very comforting in tense moments of my life. "Just because someone dose it the easy way, it shouldn't stop you from doing it the right way".
Remember we're all noobs, some of us just fly the flag a little higher.
-Morison
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